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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Two mysterious men attempted to bribe a guard to leave his post watching over the giant goat in Gävle in eastern Sweden in an attempt to kidnap the iconic Christmas symbol using a helicopter.

The two men offered the guard 50,000 kronor ($7,350) to look the other way, the local Arbetarbladet newspaper reports.According to the guard, referred to only as Mats, the two men wanted to kidnap the goat using a helicopter and take it away to Stureplan in central Stockholm.The recent kidnapping plot can be found among a number of incidents recorded by Mats and his colleagues charged with ensuring that the towering straw goat survives until Christmas.The erecting of the Gävle goat, a tradition which dates back to 1966, takes place on the first Sunday of Advent in the town’s central square, Slottstorget.And while building the goat, which has measured as high as 13 metres, has become one of the town’s most cherished Yuletide traditions, attempting to burn it down before Christmas is almost as popular.Last year, the goat was torched in the early hours of December 23rd, while in 2008, it survived through Christmas, only to go up in flames on December 27th.In order to protect the goat this year, the town hired a security firm to watch over Gävle’s holiday treasure. So far, the measure has succeeded in keeping the goat free of flames.“If the goat were to burn on my shift, I’d never be able to show my face in town again,” Mats told the newspaper.

Good night's sleep key to beauty: Swedish study

Published: 16 Dec 10 12:00 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Swedish researchers at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute have determined that the attractiveness of a person is far more influenced by a good night's rest than previously thought.

For the first time, there is scientific backing for the concept of beautysleep, according to lead research John Axelsson, a sleep scientist in the department of clinical neuroscience.

"My daughter once asked me, 'Why is Sleeping Beauty so beautiful? Is it because she slept?' As a scientist, when I say something, it has to be the truth, it has to be backed up," he told The Local on Thursday.

"However, science also has to be fun. It's our responsibility to make science fun. So many beliefs about things affect our entire culture. Many of these beliefs are untrue, but this seems to be true across different cultures," Axelsson added.

"We knew that it would affect tiredness levels, but we didn't know it would affect attractiveness and perception of health levels as well," he explained.

The Karolinska team investigated the relationship between sleep and perceptions of attractiveness and health. Twenty-three participants aged 18 to 31 took part in the study, which was carried out three years ago. The results were published by the British Medical Journal online on Monday.

"We did not control for attractiveness, only for illnesses and sleep disturbances. We wanted to look at sleep," said Axelsson.

Participants were photographed from 2pm to 3pm on two occasions, once after a normal night of sleep and once after an entire night deprived of sleep. Smokers were excluded from the research and no alcohol was allowed for two days prior to the experiment.

"Smoke affects the skin, making one look less attractive, while alcohol disturbs sleep and affects muscle tone," Axelsson explained.

Half of the group started with a full night's sleep, while the other half started sleep-deprived, then underwent the second half of the experiment two weeks later.

The full night's sleep involved seven to nine hours of slumber the night before the photographs were taken. Participants had to lay in bed for at least eight of those hours.

The photographs were taken seven hours after the participants woke up.

For the sleep-deprived photographs, the participants were kept awake for 31 hours straight.

The photographs of just the subject's faces were taken in a well lit room and the distance to the camera was fixed. During both photography sessions, participants wore no make-up, had their hair loose or combed back for long hair and underwent similar cleaning or shaving procedures.

They were asked to have a relaxed, neutral facial expression for both photos.

Sixty-five observers rated the photographs for attractiveness and whether the individuals looked healthy and tired/not tired.

The observers judged the faces of the sleep-deprived participants as less healthy, less attractive and more tired.

The researchers concluded that the facial signals of sleep-deprived people affect facial appearance and judgments of attractiveness, health and tiredness.

Axelsson recommends seven to eight hours of sleep a night for most adults and strongly advises against sleeping less than six hours a night on a regular basis.

"One can manage five-hour nights one to two nights in a row, but it is very hard to perform as well the next day. It can also lead to immune activations, worse metabolisms and pre-diabetic conditions," he cautioned.

As for those who sleep too much, Axelsson said that it can be a sign of disease, when one needs more sleep, or chronic inflammation.

Axelsson and his colleagues are currently at work on a paper evaluating the results of extended sleep disturbances.

"The entire field of sleep focusses on metabolism, brain and cognitive functions. There is less data on how it affects us socially and our relationships. There are lots of anecdotal examples of people looking worse, but no scientific evidence," he said.

An American hospital group spent millions of dollars hiring models in lab coats, short skirts and high heels to recruit men for DNA tests and quietly overcharge them for the privilege.

UMass Memorial Health Care is being investigated by authorities in New Hampshire over "suspect marketing and billing practices", Michael Delaney, the state's attorney general said.

Its bone marrow registry is accused of paying an agency up to $50,000 (£32,000) a week for models to visit shopping centres, flirt with passing male customers and coax them into having cheek swabs taken.

The models, who were in their 20s, allegedly told the men the tests would barely cost anything, before billing them an average of $4,300 (£2,770) each via their health insurance – about 40 times more than the typical cost.

For 18 months, they were instructed how to dress and how to behave in an attempt to entice men into having swabs taken, officials said.

It is claimed they happily took samples from people who weren't eligible because of their age, medical profile or because they were already on a national registry.

The company said it had used models "to help acquaint the public on how they can contribute to this lifesaving effort", but had since stopped sending them to kiosks in shopping centres.

In a statement, the hospital group said: "Every potential donor is provided with a donor consent form that explains that his or her insurance company may be billed". It added that the company "has reviewed its billing practices for this test and confirmed to its best knowledge that it is appropriately paid".

A spokesman declined to comment on the claim that ineligible people were signed up as donors.

You won't be popular ... but tucking in to plenty of garlic may prevent arthritis

Garlic breath: Women who ate alot of vegetables in the garlic family were less likely to have hip osteoarthritis

It may do no favours for your breath, but enjoying a diet rich in garlic, onions and leeks could reduce your risk of developing the most common form of arthritis.

Researchers at King’s College London and the University of East Anglia investigated possible links between diet and the painful joint disease.

They found that women who ate a lot of allium vegetables (in the garlic family) had lower levels of hip osteoarthritis.

The findings, published in the BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders journal, show the great potential garlic compounds have in developing new treatments for the disease.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in adults, affecting around 8 million people in the UK, with women are more likely to develop it than men.

It causes pain and disability by affecting the hip, knees and spine in the middle-aged and elderly population. Currently there is no effective treatment other than pain relief and, ultimately, joint replacement.

A relationship is known to exist between body weight and osteoarthritis but this was the first study to delve deeper into how diet could impact on development and prevention of the condition.

The study, funded by Arthritis Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and Dunhill Medical Trust, looked at over 1,000 healthy female twins, many of whom had no symptoms of arthritis.

The team carried out a detailed assessment of the diet patterns of the twins and analysed these alongside x-ray images, which captured the extent of early osteoarthritis in the participants’ hips, knees and spine.

They found that in those who consumed a healthy diet with a high intake of fruit and vegetables, particularly alliums such as garlic, there was less evidence of early osteoarthritis in the hip joint.

To investigate the potential protective effect of allium vegetables further, researchers studied the compounds found in garlic.

They found that that a compound called diallyl disulphide limits the amount of cartilage-damaging enzymes when introduced to a human cartilage cell-line in the laboratory.

Dr Frances Williams, lead author from the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London, says: 'While we don't yet know if eating garlic will lead to high levels of this component in the joint, these findings may point the way towards future treatments and prevention of hip osteoarthritis.

'If our results are confirmed by follow-up studies, this will point the way towards dietary intervention or targeted drug therapy for people with osteoarthritis.’

Professor Ian Clark of the University of East Anglia said: ‘Osteoarthritis is a major health issue and this exciting study shows the potential for diet to influence the course of the disease.

'With further work to confirm and extend these early findings, this may open up the possibility of using diet or dietary supplements in the future treatment osteoarthritis.’

Lighthouse transformed into a fairy castle after being encased in sparkling ice

Rising from the water in shimmering tiers, it looks more like a fairy tale castle than a lighthouse.

But this incredible sculpture was actually created by layers of frost encrusted on the walls of the structure which sits at Cleveland Harbour on the shores of Lake Erie, Ohio.

Sub-zero air temperatures have caused the water to freeze in multiple layers, coating the entire building in ice. It has also made it virtually impossible for mariners to see the light.

Spectacular: A small break in the cloud lights up the ice encrusted lighthouse at Cleveland Harbour, on Lake Erie, Ohio

Pounded by the waves: Icy storms have been pounding much of the States for days

The phenomenon was created by bone-chilling storms which have plagued the Midwest for days before sweeping through the Northeast and on into Canada. Hundreds of motorists have been stranded on a southern Ontario highway.

Usual conditions: The lighthouse looks completely different without its icy winter coating

More snow fell yesterday in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The frigid temperatures stretched into the deep South, where hard freeze warnings were in effect overnight in much of Florida. Hundreds of schools were closed or opening late.

Canadian officials said about 150 of the estimated 300 people trapped in their vehicles on Highway 402 near Sarnia, Ontario, had been rescued, as many as a dozen by military helicopters.

Many people are staying with their vehicles. Sarnia is about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northeast of Detroit. Ontario Community Safety Minister Jim Bradley said he had no reports of deaths or injuries among the stranded.

In northern Ohio, the wintry blast created risky driving conditions and pushed some university exams to Christmas week.

Commuters walking on snow-encrusted sidewalks clutched hats and tugged scarves tightly against the windy onslaught in Cleveland, where as much as 9 more inches (23 more centimeters) could fall before a storm warning expires Wednesday morning. Up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow has already fallen in parts of the snow belt east of the city.

Buffalo is used to getting thumped by lake effect storms coming off Lake Erie.

Helicopters were being used on Florida's valuable and sensitive vegetable crops, an unusual approach by farmers worried that an uncommon freeze could wipe out their harvests. The choppers hover low over fields to push warmer air closer to the plants.

It was too windy to use helicopters Tuesday morning, but farmer John Hundley said he would try Tuesday night if winds calmed and temperatures did not warm up.

Welcome back: A Roman statue buried for centuries is removed from the shore of the Mediterranean sea in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Tuesday

Lady of the sea: The statue, made of white marble, stands about 4ft tall and weighs 440lbs. It is of a headless, armless woman wearing a toga and 'incredibly detailed' sandals

It dates back to the Roman occupation of what was western Judea, between 1,800 and 2,000 years ago.

The incredible find, which was discovered by a passer-by, will now be put on display in a museum.

'The sea gave us this amazing statue', researcher Yigal Israeli said. 'The statue fell into the sea when the ancient maritime cliff collapsed'.

But the find has been tinged with heartbreak for researchers after the storms destroyed the breakers protecting the Roman-era port of Caesarea, threatening to wash away one of the world's most important historic sites.

Easy does it: A workman guides the statue as it is slowly lowered to the ground after being hauled up from the bottom of the cliff

Israeli archaeologists have now declared a 'national disaster' and warned the popular tourist attraction was in danger of suffering irreversible damage.

The Mediterranean port, near Israel's third largest city Haifa, was built by Herod the Great shortly before the birth of Christ and served as the seat of government for Pontius Pilate.

Zeev Margalit, a spokesman for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, said his agency had warned the government several times in recent months of the danger to the port.

'If Israel does not react immediately then a major international heritage site will be lost', he said.

‘It is a matter of time until it all collapses'.

Shuka Dorfman, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority added: 'The damage is tremendous and dramatic.

'With the collapse of the breakwater, the antique treasures in the Caesarea National Park are exposed to harm from the Ocean'.

While Roman and crusader fortifications were damaged in the gale, it is the loss of the modern breakwater that has archaeologists most worried.

The barrier affords Caesarea, fragile because of erosion and a lack of natural sand, crucial protection from the waves. Officials warned that further heavy rain could easily cause the excavations to slide into the Mediterranean.

The winds also damaged a number of breakwaters and levees which protect coastal communities.

Also recovered at the Ashkelon site were fragments of a Roman bath-house and mosaics.

Authorities have now removed the marble statue from the site to study it.

Ashkelon was also the site of another amazing find in 1988 when the skeletons of 100 Roman-era babies were discovered in a sewer beneath a bath house.

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So much news today is dull, depressing, controversial. It's almost impossible to watch news without hearing story after story of war, terror, killing, destruction, government, corruption, etc. I come across weird and wonderful news items as I scan the worlds press that put a smile on ones face or distract one from all the doom and gloom. These are the stories that will make up "The Quirky Globe". If you have any reactions to articles please leave a comment.... it may encourage debate. Pass this site on to your friends who are also fed up with mainstream news and become a follower. Enjoy and smile.